Economic Times reported that the long wait for a large number of shareholders of state owned iron ore miner, Orissa Minerals Development Company is finally over.

After holding shares of the company for over a decade now, investors will get to see the listing of these shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The listing will provide these investors with an opportunity to exit faster on an active exchange such as the BSE.

According to brokers, OMDC, incorporated in 1918, is one of the oldest iron ore mining companies in the country. The counter has seen a lot of action in the off market for the past few days. The stock has been changing hands at about 20,000 to 22,000 per share. Its listing on an active stock exchange has been pending for a long time but has happened only now after the Calcutta Stock Exchange and the BSE entered into an agreement to permit trading of CSE listed shares after the BSE acquired a stake in the exchange in 2007.

OMDC is currently valued at over 1,200 crore in terms of m cap. Retail shareholders hold close to 26% in the company while promoters control close to 50% while LIC has a stake of around 15.4% in the company.

Mr Rajan Shah MD of 3A Capital Services said that ”We are getting lot of enquiries on OMDC. There has been renewed activity in the OMDC counter of late with almost a few thousand shares trading for the past few days.”

There have been several instances where the scripts have seen huge volatility on the listing day due to no circuit filters on the first day. However, since it is listed on CSE, BSE has fixed 19,500 as its base price with a circuit filter of 5%.

The company is under the administrative control of the steel ministry. It holds six iron ore mines on lease, which have a combined reserve of close to 200 million tonnes. In fiscal 2009, it mined 1.66 million tonnes of ore and posted a net profit of 182 crore on a turnover of 347 crore. However, in fiscal 2010 it witnessed a decline of over 50% in its topline and bottom line.

OMDC said that this was due to the unprecedented slowdown in the global economy in general and the steel industry in particular, resulting in steep decline in demand and various restrictions. The company has a paid-up capital of INR 6.0 million. The company has in its coffers INR 792 crore in cash and liquid assets which translate to cash per share of around INR 13,200.

(Sourced from Economic Times)